On Hiring Cleaning Ladies...

Growing up, I never had a cleaning lady. My mum held--actually, still holds--the belief that cleaning a bathroom and doing your own laundry is character-building stuff. These things, she felt, are important for everyone to know how to do (although, I apparently skipped out on the fitted sheet folding lesson back in the day). So maybe that could explain why I'm feeling a tremendous amount of guilt right now because I just hired a cleaning lady...

It all started about a month ago when I confessed to a friend of mine that I had to push back our dinner because I needed to clean my place up. He laughed, and then said incredulously, "You DON'T have a cleaning lady?! I don't know WHAT we would do without one!" His cleaning lady visited twice a month to do a thorough job of the two-bedroom flat that he shares with his wife. In between visits, they would just do maintenance, i.e. dishes and the general picking up of stuff. He explained, "It's actually worth it, you know. It would take me three hours to do the laundry and the clean the apartment, and I could be working during that time." (He's a freelance graphic designer, and his wife travels quite a bit).

Now, my two-week trial starts on Monday, and I have a hunch that I'll sink into a guilty funk and start cleaning on Sunday...